For most of the history of business, the world’s leading companies have been industrially-focused. Pioneers like Henry Ford and Thomas Edison innovated in the physical realm using atoms – they came up with novel ways to reorganise these atoms to create things like the assembly line and the incandescent light bulb. Then, companies invested massive amounts of capital to build physical factories, pay thousands of workers and build these things. The majority of the great blue chip companies were built this way: IBM, U.S. Steel, General Electric, Walmart and Ford are just some examples. But today’s business reality is very different. We live in a world of bytes – and for the first time technology and commerce have collided in a way that makes data far more valuable than physical, tangible objects. The best place to see this is in how the market values businesses.
As you can see, companies like Apple, Amazon and Microsoft have supplanted traditional blue chip companies that build physical things. Technology is leveraging connectivity, network effects, artificial intelligence and unprecedented scale to create global platforms that are almost impossible to compete with.
ACCELERATING TECHNOLOGICAL PROGRESS
When it comes to technological progress, the rate of change itself is actually getting faster and faster. Each year brings more technological advancements than the last and once the exponential “hockey stick” kicks into overdrive, innovations could happen at a blindsiding pace.
Interestingly, there is another offshoot of accelerating change that applies more to the business and economic world. Not only is the speed of change getting faster, but for various reasons, markets are able to adopt new technologies faster:
New products can achieve millions of users in just months and the game Pokémon Go serves as an interesting case study of this potential. The game amassed 50 million users in just 19 days, which is a blink of an eye in comparison to automobiles (62 years), the telephone (50 years) or credit cards (28 years). As new technologies are created at a faster and faster pace – and as they are adopted at record speeds by markets – it’s fair to say that future could be coming at a breakneck speed.
AGRICULTURE AND TECHNOLOGY = AGTECH
The interesting question is what does this “breakneck” advancement mean for agriculture? Getting the most out of a farming operation has always been challenging, but today’s farmers face conditions that dictate a new level of effort and concern for their operations, such as changing weather patterns and the availability of arable land. As the challenges became more pronounced, farmers take advantage of technology advances to optimise farming operations. Deere has always partnered closely with farmers to advance the use of technology on the farm and over time, it became clear that customers needed more and more insights to solve their needs.
Many outside the farming world might not be aware that Deere has been investing in leading edge technologies for many years. “Automation, connectivity, artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning are a few key technologies we’re focused on to build a continually smart, evolving and more efficient farm”. This is according to John Stone: Senior vice president at John Deere. John Deere and its dealer network like Senwes, strive to bring leading edge technologies to solve problems and capture opportunities that will make their customers the most profitable and sustainable farmers in the world. We’re shifting from bigger, faster and stronger machines to solutions that are more automated, easier and precise. We’re also proving that not only does “Nothing Runs Like a Deere,” but “Nothing Thinks Like a Deere”
REFERENCES:
The 8 Major Forces Shaping the Future of the Global Economy https://www.visualcapitalist.com/the-8- major-forces-shaping-the-future-of-theglobal-economy/ John Stone: Driving Digital Farming at Deere https://www.cta.tech/News/i3/ Articles/2018/November-December/ John-Stone-Driving-Digital-Farming-atDeere.aspx?sf97323769=1
For most of the history of business, the world’s leading companies have been industrially-focused. Pioneers like Henry Ford and Thomas Edison innovated in the physical realm using atoms – they came up with novel ways to reorganise these atoms to create things like the assembly line and the incandescent light bulb. Then, companies invested massive amounts of capital to build physical factories, pay thousands of workers and build these things. The majority of the great blue chip companies were built this way: IBM, U.S. Steel, General Electric, Walmart and Ford are just some examples. But today’s business reality is very different. We live in a world of bytes – and for the first time technology and commerce have collided in a way that makes data far more valuable than physical, tangible objects. The best place to see this is in how the market values businesses.
As you can see, companies like Apple, Amazon and Microsoft have supplanted traditional blue chip companies that build physical things. Technology is leveraging connectivity, network effects, artificial intelligence and unprecedented scale to create global platforms that are almost impossible to compete with.
ACCELERATING TECHNOLOGICAL PROGRESS
When it comes to technological progress, the rate of change itself is actually getting faster and faster. Each year brings more technological advancements than the last and once the exponential “hockey stick” kicks into overdrive, innovations could happen at a blindsiding pace.
Interestingly, there is another offshoot of accelerating change that applies more to the business and economic world. Not only is the speed of change getting faster, but for various reasons, markets are able to adopt new technologies faster:
New products can achieve millions of users in just months and the game Pokémon Go serves as an interesting case study of this potential. The game amassed 50 million users in just 19 days, which is a blink of an eye in comparison to automobiles (62 years), the telephone (50 years) or credit cards (28 years). As new technologies are created at a faster and faster pace – and as they are adopted at record speeds by markets – it’s fair to say that future could be coming at a breakneck speed.
AGRICULTURE AND TECHNOLOGY = AGTECH
The interesting question is what does this “breakneck” advancement mean for agriculture? Getting the most out of a farming operation has always been challenging, but today’s farmers face conditions that dictate a new level of effort and concern for their operations, such as changing weather patterns and the availability of arable land. As the challenges became more pronounced, farmers take advantage of technology advances to optimise farming operations. Deere has always partnered closely with farmers to advance the use of technology on the farm and over time, it became clear that customers needed more and more insights to solve their needs.
Many outside the farming world might not be aware that Deere has been investing in leading edge technologies for many years. “Automation, connectivity, artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning are a few key technologies we’re focused on to build a continually smart, evolving and more efficient farm”. This is according to John Stone: Senior vice president at John Deere. John Deere and its dealer network like Senwes, strive to bring leading edge technologies to solve problems and capture opportunities that will make their customers the most profitable and sustainable farmers in the world. We’re shifting from bigger, faster and stronger machines to solutions that are more automated, easier and precise. We’re also proving that not only does “Nothing Runs Like a Deere,” but “Nothing Thinks Like a Deere”
REFERENCES:
The 8 Major Forces Shaping the Future of the Global Economy https://www.visualcapitalist.com/the-8- major-forces-shaping-the-future-of-theglobal-economy/ John Stone: Driving Digital Farming at Deere https://www.cta.tech/News/i3/ Articles/2018/November-December/ John-Stone-Driving-Digital-Farming-atDeere.aspx?sf97323769=1